“Thea!” Lord Tremayne hissed, his hand following the path of the fallen coat. “Your neck— The chain! It’s d-dug into your skin. D-dammit! You’re bleeding.” Warm fingers caressed across her nape to ease the metal free. Only then did she become aware of the burning where the chain must’ve sliced into her when Grimmett tried to rip it free.
Shuddering from the reminder, she wiggled from Daniel’s gentle touch. “’Tis nothing. Let’s forget—”
“Thea.” With heavy hands to her shoulders, he shook her once.
She couldn’t hide her wince. Neither could she avoid Lord Tremayne’s gaze.
Lord Tremayne. Daniel. Lord Tremayne.
She didn’t know what to call him anymore. How to think of him. Her past, her present, their present, spun her around till she was in knots.
“Daniel.” Unbidden, his name, the right name, slipped from her lips at the worried concern in his gaze.
“I’m here, sweetheart. Now what…” As his fingers dipped beneath the coat to reveal the shattered state of her dress, his face did an incredulous turn from troubled to livid. He swore, coloring the air with curses that put Buttons’ to shame. But when he fingered the torn bodice, when he glided one fingertip over the budding bruises from Grimmett’s savagery, his touch was featherlight. “Talk to me, Thea. Who d-did this?”
At the solemn query she dove into his arms, needing to feel them around her, needing his strength, his scent, to obliterate the hateful, hurtful morning. “Please,” she implored, her words muffled by his warm body, her eyes shut, frantic heartbeat only now calming. Now that she was with him. “I just want to forget.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her stinging breast hard against his chest.
Though he held her tight, brushing comforting palms down her back, his posture was steel, breathing choppy. “Swift John? Start t-talking.”
“We went to her room, my lord. The one in Seven Di—”
“Seven Dials!” The syllables scratched like blades across boulders. “D-devil take you, you t-t-took her there? Her?”
“Don’t.” Thea wedged her arms against his chest to snare his gaze. “Don’t blame him. I insisted. I—”
“Have t-totally ruined my surprise,” he said in a doleful tone. He leaned down to kiss her forehead. “But it’ll keep. Where else d-d-d—” His eyes squeezed shut, then flashed open, went to her torn bodice and a feral gleam lit their depths. “Hurt you elsewhere?”
“He didn’t. Buttons intervened and it’s over. Let’s just forget this—”
“Go upstairs.” He released his hold, his gaze on her torn skin. “T-take care of—”
“Go?” She clutched his arms. “Come with me.”
His jaw firmed to granite. “Nn-nay.” Hands to her waist, he pushed her from him. “Need to see this taken care—”
“This? Grimmett, you mean? Buttons already hit him!” She tried to lace their fingers, to tug him upstairs, but he avoided the maneuver. “Please? ’Tis over and done.”
“Miss Thea clobbered him too,” Buttons put in. “Don’t think he’ll trouble her again.”
“Of course he won’t!” she cried, just wanting it all erased. “I’ve no reason to go back. Let’s just—”
“D-did you flatten him?” Daniel asked Buttons, ignoring her completely.
“Aye. But the bastard’s still breathing.”
“You can’t mean to kill him,” she said when some manner of unspoken, masculine accord passed between the men and they headed for the door. “He won’t bother me again. I won’t go back, I promise! I’ve no reason to!” If the shrill way she screeched after them was any indication, the morning had finally caught up with her.
Daniel returned. He smoothed one hand down the side of her head, skimmed his thumb over her cheek until he cupped her jaw. “Thea. Why d-did you go?”
“My brush,” she replied miserably. “My hairbrush. ’Twas a gift from my mother. But his rotten skull cracked the wood, so it’s pointless. Pointless for you to return.”
Daniel’s thumb dragged over her bottom lip. “D-don’t you see? If not you, then another helpless woman—”
“I am not helpless! I walloped him good!”
“With a boot, no less,” Buttons supplied. Rather unhelpfully, Thea couldn’t help but think now that exhaustion claimed her and she simply wanted to wash off grimy Grimmett’s abhorrent touch and sleep for a week.
Daniel meshed their lips for one heart-stopping moment. He spoke to her without words, expressing his frustration, his fears, and his desperate desire to see her unharmed. Without a sound uttered between them, she knew he wouldn’t let it go.
When he gentled the pressure and raised his head, she reached for his hand, liberating the fan he still held. She waved it near his temple. “All right. Since I doubt you bought this for me to knock some sense into you, I’ll accede. With reservations, mind.” She carried his hand to her lips and kissed his fight-hardened knuckles. “No one else should be intimidated by him, you’re right on that. But I cannot condone murder.” She gave him an arch look.
“How about I rip off his b-ballocks and feed the rats?”
“Well, if you have the peace of mind to jest about it, then I suppose I can allow you to go.” Obviously humor and sense had overridden fury and he no longer intended to kill the man. Or so she reasoned. On tiptoe, she kissed his cheek. “I await your return.”
Holding up her bodice, she slipped over to Buttons and shrugged off his coat. “Thank you,” she told him quietly, transferring it to his hands. “See he comes to no harm.”
As the men took their leave, their parting exchange left her gasping.
“No harm?” Buttons laughed. “I’m to protect that pustule from you?”
“Nay. Thea meant pr-protect me, I b-believe,” Daniel rejoined, a smile in his voice. “Foolish woman, she thought I was joking?”
“So we are servin’ the sod’s stones to the rats? Capital!”
6
Protecting His Own Brings Things Up to Scratch
Just out of earshot of the door, Daniel turned to Swift John and grinned. “Think she heard?”
“Clear enough not to go wanderin’ in places she oughtn’t.”
“Good.” Waving off the driver, Daniel took the reins. “We have a
